The Ancient Regime eBook

Saint-Faron, says Boiteau, set down at 18,000 livres,
is worth 120,000 livres.

The abbey of Saint-Germain des Près (in the stewardships),
is put down at 100,000 livres. The Comte de
Clermont, who formerly had it, leased it at 160, 000
livres, “not including reserved fields and all
that the farmers furnished in straw and oats for his
horses.” (Jules Cousin, “Comte de Clermont
and his Court.”)

Saint-Waas d’Arras, according to “La France
Ecclésiastique,” brings 40,000 livres.
Cardinal de Rohan refused 1,000 livres per month for
his portion offered to him by the monks. (Duc de Lévis,
“Souvenirs,” p. 156). Its value
thus is about 300,000 livres.

Remiremont, the abbess always being a royal princess,
one of the most powerful monasteries, the richest
and best endowed, is officially valued at the ridiculous
sum of 15,000 livres. --------------------------------------
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END-NOTE 4:

Ontheeducationofprincesandprincesses.

An entire chapter might be devoted to this subject;
I shall cite but a few texts.

(Barbier, “Journal,” October, 1670).
The Dauphine has just given birth to an infant.

(Madame de Genlis, “Souvenirs de Félicie,”
p.74. Conversation with Madame Louise, daughter
of Louis XV., and recently become a Carmelite).

“I should like to know what troubled you most
in getting accustomed to your new profession?

“You could never imagine,” she replied,
smiling. “It was the descent of a small
flight of steps alone by myself. At first it
seemed to me a dreadful precipice, and I was obliged
to sit down on the steps and slide down in that attitude.”
— “A princess, indeed, who had never
descended any but the grand staircase at Versailles,
leaning on the arm of her cavalier in waiting and
surrounded by pages, necessarily trembled on finding
herself alone on the brink of steep winding steps.
(Such is) the education, so absurd in many respects,
generally bestowed on persons of this rank; always
watched from infancy, followed, assisted, escorted
and everything anticipated, (they) are thus, in great
part, deprived of the faculties with which nature
has endowed them.”